Lexington City Council approves budget

Monday

Jun 9, 2014 at 10:08 PM

The Lexington City Council approved the $104 million city budget for 2014-2015 fiscal year during its regular meeting on Monday. The budget includes a $2.50 sanitation fee increase, a 4.2 percent utility rate hike and a 2 percent cost of living raise for city employees.

BY SHARON MYERSThe Dispatch

The Lexington City Council approved the $104 million city budget for 2014-2015 fiscal year during its regular meeting on Monday. The budget includes a $2.50 sanitation fee increase, a 4.2 percent utility rate hike and a 2 percent cost of living raise for city employees.Lexington City Manager Alan Carson said the addition to monthly garbage fees replaced a possible 3-cent property tax increase incurred due to a $300,000 reduction in Lexington Police Department drug forfeiture funds. Carson said the recovering local economy has made this another challenging budget year and preparing a balanced budget has presented numerous difficulties. Regardless, Carson said there is strong support of the city council's goals and guiding principles for governing throughout the budget. "We are always making sure our priorities are set with the city councils goals in mind," Carson said. "As we worked towards this budget, we combined the general operating principals with the city council's goals as a basic foundation."The budget also includes a 4.2 percent electric rate hike for utilities, which includes passing along a 3.2 percent wholesale electric rate increase from the North Carolina Municipal Power Agency 1. An additional 1 percent increase was also included for electrical system equipment and repairs. The rate increase will cost an additional $5.83 a month or $70 a year for a home that uses 1,000 kilowatt in a 30-day period. The budget proposal also included a 2 percent cost of living increase for city employees, mostly to offset the increase in insurance costs, which have risen due to the high rate of claims over the past year. Mayor Newell Clark commended the city manager's office, city department heads and city council members for working hard to come up with a solution to keep the city financially sound and to address projects as they related to their goals."There was originally a proposed tax increase in the budget," Clark said. "During our budget meetings you literally rolled up your sleeves and started looking at cutting things and making adjustments, so there was no tax increase. It was an aggressive budget to continue to move the city forward, and I would like to say how much I thank you all for your work."In other business, the city council approved several amendments to city's land and use ordinance to clear up ambiguous language. City planner Josh Monk said the clarifications are necessary to close certain loopholes developers have used to bypass the council's recent commitment to improve the appearance of Lexington."We want our community to be walkable and more pedestrian friendly," Monk said. "Developers have found a loophole in our ordinance and it is negating all the work the city has done."The city ordinance was changed to require landscaping for new parking lots with 5,000 square feet or more of vehicular surface area, regardless of the number of parking places. The ordinance was also changed to require new businesses to front facing main thoroughfares even if the building faces more than one street. Finally, the land-use ordinance was changed to require permits with an established time period for portable on-demand storage units. Monk said there have been issues with residents using these units as permanent storage areas creating complaint from citizens.Sharon Myers can be reached at 249-3981, ext, 228 or at sharon.myers@the-dispatch.com. Follow Sharon on Twitter: @LexDisptachSM

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